Justice Dept.: Prison Smuggling a Problem

Published 2:28 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Using everything from a baby's diaper to burritos, smugglers regularly get illegal drugs to federal prisoners, even at the highest-security institutions, Justice Department investigators said Wednesday

Inmate visitors are the major source of drugs. But Justice Department Inspector General Glen A. Fine found that mail and prison staff also bring in marijuana, heroin, cocaine and other drugs at the nation's 102 Bureau of Prisons facilities, demonstrating a need to upgrade interdiction efforts.

Prison personnel are of particular concern, Fine said, because they tend to bring in larger amounts that spread to more inmates. There are few restrictions on personal items prison staff can bring to work, and there is no program for drug testing or random searches.

"The vast majority of (bureau) employees have high integrity, but a few corrupt staff can do enormous damage to the safety and security of an institution," Fine said in a statement accompanying his report.

In a written response, Bureau of Prisons Director Kathleen Hawk Sawyer criticized what she called the "lack of statistical support" for some of the report's conclusions. She rejected a recommendation that the bureau begin searching prison staff when they come to work.

_There were an average of 3,080 inmates who tested positive for drugs each year from 1997 through 2001, an average rate of about 2 percent nationwide. High-security prisons had a higher positive drug test rate, at over 3 percent.

_Fifty federal inmates have died of drug overdoses since 1997.

_Authorities recorded more than 1,100 drug "finds" in federal prisons since 2000.

Visitors often use the cover of crowded visitation rooms to pass drugs when hugging or kissing an inmate. The report also cited cases where drugs were smuggled in a baby's diapers, in body cavities and in food brought to the prison or purchased at a prison vending machine.

At one prison, a so-called "burrito caper" occurred in which a visitor smuggled in a burrito filled with balloons of heroin, bought an identical one at a prison vending machine and then switched the two with the inmate.

The report recommended greater use of pat searches of visitors, better use of staff and camera monitoring, and restriction of contact visits for some inmates.

Sawyer agreed with some of the recommendations but said regular inmate visitation by family members is "important for maintaining social and family ties" that help the offender cope with prison life and adjust to society when released.

Regarding inmate mail, the report found some prisons handle thousands of pieces of mail every day, making manual inspection of each item impossible. Recommendations include elimination of unsolicited mail, better staff training for drug detection and testing of better technology that would allow inspection of more pieces.

The report also made numerous recommendations for improving drug treatment of inmates to reduce the demand for drugs, including an increase in staff for the programs. Sawyer said that would entail hiring 200 more people at a cost of more than $13.4 million, which Congress has not approved.